On the Mezzanine
by somethinginthewayful
Summary: Just as Jackson was about to slide the knife across Lisa's throat he lost his nerve, after all she was Joe's daughter. -Lisa's world is turned upside down when she sees the startlingly human side of Jackson Rippner.
1. Suburban War

**AN: Hello all! Okay, so this is my first story for Red Eye, it's one of my favorite movies (especially because of Cillian Murphy…) and I thought I was the only one who saw the serious chemistry between Lisa and Jackson. After catching it on TNT this past weekend I thought I'd check out the world of fanfic for this couple… to my pleasant surprise it has such a fanbase! So… here is my contribution, I hope you all like it, please don't forget to hit up that review button at the bottom. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Red Eye or anything belonging to Wes Craven's awesome movie. Sorry!**

Lisa Reisert was shooting to kill, the gun pointed directly at Jackson Rippner's heart. But the sharp clang of her father moving around in the back end of the house startled her and her hand tweaked slightly off center, when she shot it barely skimmed his shoulder. He hissed at the flesh wound and then saw his window of opportunity, however small. Lunging forward and knocking the gun from her hands he tackled her down the remaining steps and pulled her hair up as she scrambled to get free.

Yanking her to her feet he pressed the blade of the twelve inch KA-BAR to her throat. He felt her body stiffen pressed against his and suddenly her words from earlier on the plane flashed back to him. "_It happened in a parking lot… he held a knife to my throat the whole time,"_

He felt sick. This simple motion of pressing a knife to someone's throat, an action he had done dozens of times before, had taken on new meaning. She equated him with someone who had stolen her sense of self and safety – a monster of a man. The knife's sharp edge that was lightly pressed against the supple flesh of Lisa's neck was drawing small beads of blood and she was desperately craning her neck back to avoid its sting. She found herself in a precarious situation, with her head leaning back on Jackson's shoulder, exhaling hot breath onto his ear and ruffling his disheveled hair. His hand was secured across her stomach, palm splayed out on her taught muscles and their legs pressed against one another's.

She felt the knife drop slightly, almost brushing the location of her scar; she ever so gently moved her head into an upright position, her breath still coming in shallow gasps. He leaned his head onto her shoulder in turn and pressed a small kiss to her neck, he felt her relax slightly as he dropped his hand and lifted his lips, "I'm sorry Leese." He whispered.

His hands left her stunned body slowly, dragging so his fingertips were the last thing to leave her hips. Her mouth was about to whisper, "Jackson," when her father reemerged from the kitchen.

"Jackson?" her father stated bluntly and took a few steps forward, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Lisa's body turned and she looked from her father's disbelieving eyes to Jackson's guilty ones.

"Joe, I never meant for it to go this far," Jackson said, letting the knife clatter to the floor.

Joe nodded glumly, "When you called me three months ago, you said your next job would be your hardest, I didn't know you meant you were going to kill my daughter."

"My assignment wasn't to kill Lisa, if it was I would have turned it down." Jackson admitted.

"Then what the hell do you think you're doing pressing a knife to her throat?" Joe challenged and Lisa was beyond confused.

"Things got… heated, the company assured me she wouldn't fight back and I thought I could have just left you all in peace, Joe if I'd known…" Jackson was trying to atone for his sins like a teenager caught with a girl in the back of his father's car.

"Jackson," Joe shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck.

Joe's eyes finally rested on his daughter, who was looking back and forth between the two of them with wide eyes and a slack jaw. When Joe shifted his gaze back to Jackson he realized that Jackson was watching Lisa intently, studying her every move.

"Lisa," Joe began.

Lisa stumbled slightly and leaned her palm against the wall behind her, her breath was jagged.

"Joe, she's going down," Jackson took the moment to place a hand on Lisa's back and the other on her free forearm, "Leese, sit down."

She let him help her to a sitting position and then she shrugged off his touch, "Please, don't touch me,"

"Leese," Jackson was about to argue but thought better of it.

"Now, explain." Lisa said.

The sound of sirens in the distance put them all to attention and Jackson's mouth suddenly felt dry, "Joe, I know I don't deserve it but you've got to help me out here,"

Joe sighed, defeated again, "I'm only doing this because you were like a son to me, but hurting Lisa… you don't get a free pass for that. I'm sparing you the police so I can kick your ass myself."

Jackson nodded complacently and followed Joe out to a book shelf; it slid open with Joe's press of a button under his desk. A panic room was revealed behind the small library and Lisa felt sick again.

"Just stay here," Joe murmured, "I'll take care of the police, Lisa, you too."

"What?" she said, "not a chance, I won't go anywhere with him."

"It's for your protection, the company will know the mission was a failure by now and be sending someone to clean up the situation, that means you, Leese." Joe kissed his daughter's hair but she flinched away, "Jackson can explain everything to you, please trust me."

"Why should I? You associate with killers." Lisa stuck up her chin defiantly.

"He's not a killer, and you don't know a thing about what we did for a living. But it shouldn't matter, it put you through school and paid for everything you wanted," Joe shook her lightly, "it's time to understand that not everything in the world is rosy." As soon as the words left his mouth he regretted them.

"Dad, I found that out two years ago." Lisa's eyes brimmed with tears and she turned and entered the cold steel box that was her father's panic room, she turned back and leveled her voice before saying, "I barely made it through that day, and when I did I had to do it alone. Because you were away on business, at least now I know what kind of business it was."

Jackson followed her into the panic room silently and pressed the small button for the door to close, leaving Joe Reisert completely at a loss for words.


	2. Wake Up

**AN: Well assuming you enjoyed chapter one and wondered over to chapter two you might enjoy this one too. :) Nothing too graphic but I do give a retelling of Lisa's rape, so please, if at all uncomfortable with that material, just skim this one. Thank you for heading over and don't forget to hit the button…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Red Eye or Jackson Rippner… but if I did… **

"Lisa," Jackson murmured after a while, "Leese,"

"What?" she snapped.

"Your father left the company because of what happened to you," Jackson murmured, "he couldn't let you be alone, he said."

Lisa sighed and pulled her knees to her chest as she sat at the head of the cot, "Do you want to know why I was in that parking lot in the first place, Jack?"

"Yes." He said simply.

She looked up with glassy eyes, "I was there to pick him up from the train station because he was supposed to be home, but when I got there I didn't even have time to make it to the platform. He pulled me twenty feet by my hair behind a black suburban in the parking garage and held a knife to my throat."

"I'm sorry, Leese."

"No you're not, you do the same thing all the time," Lisa challenged.

"Lisa, you should shut the fuck up about things you know nothing about," Jackson's voice hardened, "I do nothing like that, I've never done anything like _that_."

"You did it to me today." Lisa replied.

"I never _raped_ you."

"Might as well have,"

"God dammit Leese!" Jackson shouted and his fist landed on the edge of the bed. She flinched and he continued, "I've known about you my entire life, I grew up with you from all the stories your dad has told me, and I have never once wanted to hurt you. And I would never do that to anyone, especially not you."

Lisa was obviously frightened of him but his words had a cathartic effect, she let out a much needed breath of air and murmured, "Nobody found me for four hours."

"What?" he looked down at her green eyes

"The owner of the suburban didn't come back for four hours, and it was a whole family of little kids and soccer moms, and I felt terrible that they had to find me like that."

"That's just like you," Jackson commented and she gave him a puzzled look, "always putting others before yourself, you do it every day Leese, and work yourself stiff because of it."

She nodded in understanding and then continued. She wasn't sure why she was telling him this story, but she felt like he should know it, "He held me against the suburban the first time, and pressed my head into the glass, so there were bloody hand prints all over the window of the back seat… and the second time I was on the ground by the tires, and I felt little bits of glass from a few broken beer bottles biting my skin… and every time he moved the knife pressed a little harder to my throat…" her eyes had slipped closed somewhere in the middle of her story and he could tell that she was remembering the little details of it.

He couldn't find the right words to express his feelings. Half of him was furious at the man who had done this to her, and half of him wanted to pull Lisa Reisert into his arms.

"When that family found me my dress was torn open down the front and I was gripping the rims of their tires, he had beaten me up so much that I looked dead," she swallowed, "the doctors told me that I had a fractured cheek, a broken arm, had lost a lot of blood and had a concussion." She let out a shallow breath, "and then they told me it might be hard for me to have children after what he had…"

"Lisa," Jackson's voice was broken when he interrupted her and he cleared his throat slightly, "Leese, please,"

Lisa's eyes opened and took in Jackson's appearance, his eyes were full of grief for her and she hadn't even noticed his hand now resting on her knee, "My dad didn't get to the hospital for six days."

"Lisa you don't understand why he couldn't be there, you don't understand what our job is like."

"Explain it to me."

"Your father should be the one to tell you," Jackson lowered his eyes

"No. Explain it to me right here and right now, or so help me, I will open up that panic room door and throw you to the police." Lisa set her jaw and crossed her arms.

Jackson sighed, "Okay, but you have to promise to let me finish the story before you start asking questions."

"Deal."

"Deal."


	3. Little Thoughts

**AN: Okay, so again, here's chapter three and I hope you enjoyed the first two. Since I'm uploading three chapters all at once it's a bit of a shot in the dark… anyway, this chapter is a little less M rated, but full of potential Jackson/Lisa fluffiness. I'm a big believer in the: Jackson isn't a bad person Lisa just mistook him for one on the Red Eye flight, idea. Anyway, please review and let me know if I should keep posting!**

**Disclaimer: blah blah I don't own the sexy blue eyed irish man, I know. **

**AN pt. 2: By the way, anyone who hasn't seen the following of Cillian's movies, please go and do so:  
-Disco Pigs, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Sunburn, Sunshine, Edge of Love…. There are more but I'll get to them later. :D**

"I first met your dad when I was recruited to the company at nineteen," Jackson leaned against the cold metal wall and continued, "I got swept up into the world of the company and before I knew it my life was changed from being a college student to being a high profile assassin in training. At least, that's what I thought I was training for, but as it turns out the little company that was teaching me skills with knives and guns was closely tied between the CIA and the NSA,"

"but what was your actual job?" Lisa interjected quickly.

He was going to reprimand her but instead saw the validity of the question and paused his story, "The company is a private and freelance organization that specializes in different kinds of security. That can entail assassinations of government threats… or something as simple as being bodyguard to a diplomat visiting the states for a meeting at the UN."

"Oh," Lisa bit her lip, "What do you normally do?"

"Somewhere in the middle, actually," he sighed, "I told you on the plane that I was in management, and I am. I usually organize high profile assassinations and take care of all the loose ends regarding press, family, etc. Sometimes I do field work, like today… it all depends on what the big guys upstairs tell me to do. I get paid substantial amounts of money to be virtually undetectable, tax free, and privy to some of the most sensitive information in the country. It's not a bad gig considering," he gave a small smile that she returned warily.

"And my dad…"

"Your dad was on the higher end of things… he would have been one of the guys I managed."

"So he… killed people…"

"Yes." Jackson answered bluntly.

"I don't want to know anymore." Lisa replied, her throat dry.

"Just as well," Jackson shrugged and pushed himself up off the bed to press his ear to the cold door.

"Anything?" Lisa murmured after a few moment and Jackson shook his head in reply.

"Lisa, for the record," Jackson returned to his seat and turned to her, "your father is a good man. When I was recruited he understood that I had been having trouble adjusting… letting go over my feelings about killing and everything else with the company,"

"Did you get over them?" Lisa's question broke his moment of nostalgia.

"What?" his ice blue eyes locked with hers.

"Did you ever get over them, the feelings I mean," Lisa repeated.

"I…" Jackson wanted to say yes and jut out his chin like a defiant little boy but he sighed, "no… that's part of the reason I don't do what your father did. I could never move past the technicalities, I eventually learned to accept that the people we killed were bad people, evil people even… but I still found it difficult to take a life."

"Have you?" Lisa pried.

"Yes."

"…how many?"

"Lisa." His voice warned.

"I want to know," she released her legs and leaned up towards him, her eyes catching his distraught expression, "I can see that it hurts you, but I shared one of the most painful experiences of my life. Your turn,"

"You showed yours, you never said I had to show mine," he noted and leaned against the metal wall.

"Okay," Lisa gave up quicker than he imagined and she leaned against the wall with him, "Jackson, you never finished your story,"

He smiled gently at the use of his proper name and his eyes slipped closed, "your father told me that I didn't have to be a cleaner like him, I could be a manager and be just as fulfilled. He taught me everything he knew about knife work…. And plenty of other skills. I looked up to Joe like a father, he kept me safe at the company until I got my bearings and even after that."

"That's just like him," Lisa smiled.

"He talked about you often, Lisa, sometimes I feel like I've known you for years," Jackson admitted, "every birthday I saw a new picture of you and for your prom and graduation and every achievement… Joe was always so proud of you."

There was a moment of silence when Lisa heard something definitively human in his voice and she swallowed, "then you knew about what happened to me…"

"When you were attacked your father was overseas, in Iraq actually, dealing with one of the leaders of al-Qaeda... I was assisting in his management at the time and I intercepted the call from the hospital to his office line," Lisa studied his face for a moment as he continued the story, eyes closed and lost in memories, "I called your father that night as soon as I knew he was safe and he tried to get back for you, as fast as he could,"

"I never knew,"

Jackson nodded, paused and continued, "I visited you in the hospital, and when your father finally got there… he wanted to kill the bastard who had hurt you. He looked for him through the company databases for about six months before he finally retired and left that job up to me,"

Lisa could hardly breathe as she listened and her words locked onto his last words, "_you_ looked for him?"

"Whenever I don't have a case, which isn't very often, I always take another look and see what I can dig up about him," Jackson clamped his mouth shut and cleared his throat awkwardly.

There were a few moments of complete silence in which Lisa could not pull her eyes off of his face and she finally let out a small breath of relief and laced his hand with her own. His fingers tensed and then relaxed as he looked back down at her green eyes as she whispered, "thank you,"

He gave a small nod and gave a squeeze to her hand, "still think I'm a monster Leese?"

Almost too quickly she shook her head and a teardrop rolled down her face, "No, I'm sorry… if I'd known I probably wouldn't have been so stubborn about everything,"

He gave a small knowing smile and turned his face to the stare at the other wall, his fingers still laced in hers. Lisa licked her dry lips and said, "There's one thing I still don't understand."  
"Which is?" Jackson prompted.

"Why Charles Keefe?"

"Keefe was involved in an assassination plot against the president," Jackson stated and then decided to elaborate, "there are a few high profile people inside the cabinet who are traitors, treasonous even… their goal was to kill the president and change the very foundation of the government."

"I…" she debating on whether or not she believed him but finally gave a small nod and suddenly became acutely aware of the pad of his thumb rubbing small circles into the back of her hand, she smiled.

"Are you alright Leese?" he asked quietly, "it's a lot to take in…"

"I'm not really sure," she noticed how oddly comfortable it felt to be leaning against a man who had just tried to kill her and she had just tried to shoot, "but I'll let you know when I am."

Jackson smiled to himself and listened as Lisa quietly fell asleep on his shoulder.

**AN pt. 3: I know, I just don't shut up, but there's chapter three. I'm assuming that if I get enough positive reviews another chapter will be up tomorrow afternoon… perhaps Wednesday if school bogs down my week. I'll try to update as often as possible. Thanks!**


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